Delta Wing Dreams

Think about the opportunities that lie outside the very restrictive rule books of today—innovation could thrive.

Motor racing is about the car being the star and making stars out of drivers. The car is extremely important and if we eliminate the influence of the car for the aggrandizement of the driver, we do so at our peril. Because if the car isn't special, there's nothing to it. I noticed that my own children, as they were growing up in Indiana, and with their dad in motorsports, were not very interested in racing. They would often say, "It's boring, dad." So that made me think about why the kids are not excited. Why doesn't the racing car have the same influence on them that it had on our generation? I think it's because the car is not so much the star these days. It's somewhat mundane because everybody has a car.

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Indianapolis used to be a proving ground; people used to bring what they dreamed up in the winter to the track and try to win the prize. It was fascinating; it was like Christmas when these cars came out in February, March, April, seeing what the new cars were going to be. People couldn't wait to open the newspaper to see what the latest car was at Indy. It was exciting. We've lost a certain amount of that.

There are so many exciting technologies that could be on a racing car that are banned because if they weren't, cars would be too fast. Think about the opportunities that lie outside the very restrictive rule books of today—innovation could thrive. This is what got me thinking about what would be a really cool car, and what I came up with was the Delta Wing.

The Delta Wing is all about engineering efficiency, and since trying to go farther, faster or whatever, is about efficiency, I asked myself, "What would be the most efficient form of racing car that you could conceive?" And while we were at it, we should attempt to address the aerodynamic downforce lost by being in the wake of a leading car. We know that a NASCAR stocker can work well in the draft of another car; it doesn't lose much downforce. This knowledge can be applied to other car formulae and you'd have some really exciting, close racing.

I built a radio-controlled model car to test a wild idea; it was a 3-wheel version of a 4-wheel baseline model. The engineering team at Ganassi realized that there were some very interesting weight savings, aerodynamic advantages and vehicle dynamic advantages if we could reduce the weight, reduce the drag, reduce the power and, therefore, reduce the fuel burn and reduce the amount of tire if we used this sort of delta-shaped car. With two 4-in.-wide front tires looking like one 8-in.-wide tire, and two 12-in.-wide rears, it looks almost like a 3-wheeler. It's not, of course; it's a 4-wheeler with a narrow front track. Yet it's very stable under braking. From all the simulation work we've done and also making some models and trying them out, we found that the paradigm is good. All of the lateral load transfer occurs across the wide rear track. It's not an understeering car. It's a car that is stably loose. If you have a loose car, then you can change its trajectory; you have total control.

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Le Mans is the ultimate proving ground and because the Delta Wing is an experimental car, there is a place for us in the race. It's not like we're trying to beat Audi or whoever. They've got a very special but different challenge; they're the big boys vying for the win. Our goal is to achieve their lap times, but with roughly half the power and half the fuel. We can do that by being half the weight and having half the drag. So the opportunity to showcase efficiency with the Delta Wing is very significant, and I hope it's the catalyst for re-energizing innovation in racing. Making it cool and sexy and exciting again, and doing it at high efficiency.

My father, who is the greatest sort of mentor and friend, said, "Really, you're just doing it because it's there." And it's true. I've got 25 years working in the sport and have lots of ideas, now the Le Mans organizers have given me the opportunity. So I'm gonna do it. It just has to be done.